lichess.org game database

Sample

[Event "Rated Bullet tournament https://lichess.org/tournament/yc1WW2Ox"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/PpwPOZMq"]
[White "Abbot"]
[Black "Costello"]
[Result "0-1"]
[UTCDate "2017.04.01"]
[UTCTime "11:32:01"]
[WhiteElo "2100"]
[BlackElo "2000"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "-4"]
[BlackRatingDiff "+1"]
[WhiteTitle "FM"]
[ECO "B30"]
[Opening "Sicilian Defense: Old Sicilian"]
[TimeControl "300+0"]
[Termination "Time forfeit"]

1. e4 { [%eval 0.17] [%clk 0:00:30] } 1... c5 { [%eval 0.19] [%clk 0:00:30] }
2. Nf3 { [%eval 0.25] [%clk 0:00:29] } 2... Nc6 { [%eval 0.33] [%clk 0:00:30] }
3. Bc4 { [%eval -0.13] [%clk 0:00:28] } 3... e6 { [%eval -0.04] [%clk 0:00:30] }
4. c3 { [%eval -0.4] [%clk 0:00:27] } 4... b5? { [%eval 1.18] [%clk 0:00:30] }
5. Bb3?! { [%eval 0.21] [%clk 0:00:26] } 5... c4 { [%eval 0.32] [%clk 0:00:29] }
6. Bc2 { [%eval 0.2] [%clk 0:00:25] } 6... a5 { [%eval 0.6] [%clk 0:00:29] }
7. d4 { [%eval 0.29] [%clk 0:00:23] } 7... cxd3 { [%eval 0.6] [%clk 0:00:27] }
8. Qxd3 { [%eval 0.12] [%clk 0:00:22] } 8... Nf6 { [%eval 0.52] [%clk 0:00:26] }
9. e5 { [%eval 0.39] [%clk 0:00:21] } 9... Nd5 { [%eval 0.45] [%clk 0:00:25] }
10. Bg5?! { [%eval -0.44] [%clk 0:00:18] } 10... Qc7 { [%eval -0.12] [%clk 0:00:23] }
11. Nbd2?? { [%eval -3.15] [%clk 0:00:14] } 11... h6 { [%eval -2.99] [%clk 0:00:23] }
12. Bh4 { [%eval -3.0] [%clk 0:00:11] } 12... Ba6? { [%eval -0.12] [%clk 0:00:23] }
13. b3?? { [%eval -4.14] [%clk 0:00:02] } 13... Nf4? { [%eval -2.73] [%clk 0:00:21] } 0-1

Notes

About 15% of the games include Stockfish analysis evaluations: [%eval 2.35].
In files with ✔ Clock, real-time games include clock states: [%clk 0:01:00].
The WhiteElo and BlackElo tags contain Glicko2 ratings.
The Round and Date tags are omitted (See UTCDate & UTCTime instead).
Variant games have a Variant tag, e.g. [Variant "Antichess"].

Extract bz2 files

Linux: bunzip2 filename.pgn.bz2
Windows: use 7zip
OSX: natively supported.

Open PGN files

Traditional PGN databases, like SCID or ChessBase, fail to open large PGN files. Until they fix it, you can split the PGN files, or use programmatic APIs such as python-chess or Scoutfish.

Related projects

• Heatmap of Chess Moves
• Deep Learning Engine for Crazyhouse
• Top lichess games by various criteria
• Comparison of Bullet, Blitz, Rapid and Classical ratings

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